Menu Close

Category: Guests

2026 Feb Parsec Monthly Event 

February is Parsec’s time for poetry. Please join us this month as we’re joined by three illustrious poets who will regale us with their prose, their stories, and hopefully you’ll come prepared with some poetry of your own that you’ll be willing to share!  Our guests this month are Luiza Flynn-Goodlett, Amelia Gorman, and Brandon O’Brien

Date: Saturday, Feb 21, 2026
Time: 1:00 – 3:30 pm [EST]
Location: Zoom ONLY. (Zoom room opens at 12:45pm)
You will need to register for the zoom meeting before 12:pm the day of the event.
Free to attend and open to the Public! 

Please note that this is a new zoom registration link as of January 2026

Luiza Flynn-Goodlett (she/her) is the author of Mud in Our Mouths (Northwestern University Press, 2025) and Look Alive (Cowles Poetry Book Prize, Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2021), along with numerous chapbooks, most recently Lossland (forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press). Her poetry can be found in Poetry Northwest, Third Coast, The Common, and elsewhere. She serves as a poetry editor for the Whiting Award–winning LGBTQIA2S+ literary journal and press Foglifter.

Brandon O’Brien is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and tabletop roleplaying game designer from Trinidad and Tobago. His work has been shortlisted for the 2014 and 2015 Small Axe Literary Competitions and the 2020 Ignyte Award for Best in Speculative Poetry, and is published in Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean. He is the former Poetry editor of the Hugo Award-winning magazine FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. His debut poetry collection, Can You Sign My Tentacle?, available from Interstellar Flight Press, is the winner of the 2022 Elgin Award. He was also recently named Poet Laureate of the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle, Washington–the first Poet Laureate Guest of Honor in the convention’s history.

Amelia Gorman lives in Eureka where she spends her free time exploring tidepools and redwoods with her dogs and foster dogs. Her fiction has appeared in Nightscript 6 and Cellar Door from Dark Peninsula Press. You can read some of her poetry in Vastarien, Utopia Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons. She has two Elgin winning chapbooks, Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota (Interstellar Flight Press) and The Worm Sonnets (Quarter Press).

2026 Jan Parsec Monthly Event 

Parsec Event! Pittsburgh’s premier Science Fiction & Fantasy Organization meets on Saturday, January 17th, 2026 via ZOOM. Event 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. (ZOOM opens at 12:45 pm) To Register visit https://bit.ly/PARSECmonthly or our webpage https://parsec-sff.org/. Open to the Public. 

(PLEASE NOTE THE NEW ZOOM LINK! THE OLD LINK WILL NO LONGER WORK!)

Our Program: Parsec Ink’s Annual Triangulation Anthology’s theme for 2026 is BAD ROMANCE. This year we are joined by the editor Marie Vibbert, and her team, to discuss the idea behind the call, what it’s like managing an anthology, and answer your questions from experienced editors who are writers themselves.


2025 Nov Parsec Monthly Event 

In Oct our guest speaker will be Author Lynn Barker (Twilight Zone, Deep Space Nine, Space Academy).

Parsec Event! Pittsburgh’s premier Science Fiction & Fantasy Organization meets on Saturday, November 15th,  2025 via Zoom only from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

Date: Saturday, Nov 15, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Zoom Room opens at 12:30pm.
Location: Zoom ONLY. You will need to register for the zoom meeting before 12:pm that day.

Dorothy (D.C. Fontana) and Lynn Barker

Author Lynn Barker (Twilight Zone, Deep Space Nine, Space Academy) introduces her captivating novel Futurus Rex and the remarkable story behind its creation. More than an Arthurian reawakening—it’s a powerful collaboration with the legendary D.C. Fontana, one of Star Trek’s most influential writers, and represents some of Dorothy’s final published work.

Futurus Rex: Where Legend Meets Tomorrow

Born from artist Bud Lewis’s original concept and adapted from a screenplay Lynn and Dorothy (D.C. Fontana) wrote together, Futurus Rex presents Arthur’s awakening into a world both familiar and alien. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Britain where broken starships circle a damaged moon, and techno-wizards wield devices that seem like magic to the medieval-style survivors below. Arthur represents the battle leader the people need in their rebellion against magical tyranny.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 Oct Parsec Monthly Event 

In Oct our guest speaker will be Teresa Milbrodt.

Date: Saturday, Oct 18, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm. Room opens at 12:30pm.
Location: Carnegie Library Squirrel Hill, Meeting Room B with a Zoom option. You will need to register for the zoom meeting before 12:30pm

Teresa Milbrodt is the author of three short story collections: Instances of Head-Switching, Bearded Women: Stories, and Work Opportunities. She has also published a novel, The Patron Saint of Unattractive People, and a flash fiction collection, Larissa Takes Flight: Stories. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines. Teresa’s scholarly interests include disability humor, disability and sexuality, and creative practice in disability communities. Her insights in this area can be of great value to writers hoping to be inclusive in creating characters whose disabilities are part of their normal lives.
She loves cats, long walks with her MP3 player, independently owned coffee shops, peanut butter frozen yogurt, and texting hearts in rainbow colors.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 Sept Parsec Monthly Event 

In September, Danny Hankner of Story Unlikely visits to tell us about his 2026 writing contest and its $5,000 prize package and new REPRINT category.

Date: Saturday, Sept 20, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm. Room opens at 12:30pm.
Location: Carnegie Library Squirrel Hill, Meeting Room B with a Zoom option.

Story Unlikely is a monthly literary magazine publishing short stories all over the literary landscape. The magazine is not concerned with genre; you can stay within the lines, combine a few, or invent a new one. Danny’s goal is to publish top-tier fiction (and creative non-fiction), and he believes allowing creatives to be creative is the best way to make that happen.

Visit Story Unlikely to learn more: https://www.storyunlikely.com/

Danny Hankner began penning stories about himself and his idiot friends as a teenager. Now, masquerading as an adult, he lives in Davenport, Iowa with his wife and kids, working as a master electrician for his own company. In his spare time, Dan rides and builds mountain bike trails, scrapes infinitely spawning cat hurl off the basement floor, and runs Story Unlikely, an award-winning literary magazine where he floats around self-important titles like Benevolent Dictator and Literary Spirit Guide. His written material has been consumed by hundreds of thousands of people from all four corners of the globe.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 July Parsec Monthly Event 

In June, we welcome Theresa Mather, A professional artist since 1989.
She is the Featured Artist at the Confluence Conference, Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel, July 25, 26, and 27, 2025.

Date: Saturday, July 19, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm. Room opens at 12:30pm.
Location: Carnegie Library Squirrel Hill, Meeting Room B with a Zoom option.

Theresa Mather creates fantasy works featuring a variety of unusual creatures. She is best known for her pieces painted on feathers and stone; she integrates her paintings with the colors and textures of the natural medium. Visit Theresa’s Website to see all the gorgeous artwork she has created!
https://rockfeatherscissors.com/

Theresa draws much of her inspiration from the world around her. She chooses to
work outside of gaming and publication, exhibiting and selling her work at science
fiction convention art shows across the country. She enjoys the freedom this gives
her to paint whatever she desires, allowing her paintings to be truly her creations.



Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 June Parsec Monthly Event 

In June, we welcome Chris Pasetto, a lead game designer at both Interplay Entertainment and Rockstar Games, as well as a Senior Designer at High Moon Studios.

Chris’s presentation will be “Narrative Interaction: Common DNA Across Different
Media.”

Date: Saturday, June 21, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm. Room opens at 12:30pm.
Location: Squirrel Hill Library Meeting Room B with a Zoom option.

Chris Pasetto started his career at DreamForge Intertainment and has worked as a lead game designer at both Interplay Entertainment and Rockstar Games, as well as Senior Designer at High Moon Studios.
Video game fans may know designer Chris Pasetto for his story work on major action games like “Call of Duty” and “Transformers.”
Chris is also known for the films “How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse” (2009) and “Air,” starring Norman Reedus (2015), and the graphic novel “Kill the Minotaur.” His tale “Waiting for a Crash” was featured in Scribner’s Best of the Fiction Workshops 1998.


Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 May Parsec Monthly Event 

In May, we welcome Professor James Wynn of Carnegie Mellon University.
How our cosmic ambitions mirror Earth’s colonial history. 

Note: Dr. Wynn will be joining us in person at Squirrel Hill Library!

Date: Saturday, May 17th, 2025
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm.
Location: Squirrel Hill Library + Zoom

James Wynn, an associate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, believes it is important to consider space exploration and settlement from the perspective of colonialism. The potential for conflicts over land and resources between nations are parallel to those in past colonial moments.  What does the future hold?

Dr. Wynn’s request: “Given that you are all avid sci-fi readers, I would really love to hear about your experiences with colonial themes in the stories you’ve read and the ways in which you think historical colonial ideas have recirculated or evolved in sci-fi literature.”

Read more about Professor Wynn here: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2023/december/a-place-in-space-for-the-humanities


Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill. 5801 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217

2025 Jan Parsec Meeting

PARSEC, Pittsburgh’s premier SF/F/H Organization meets on Saturday, January 18th , 2025 via ZOOM (see registration link below) and IN PERSON at the Mt. Lebanon Library, 16 Castle Shannon Blvd. Pittsburgh, PA 15228
Meeting time: 1:00 – 3:30 pm. (room opens at 12:30 for social time)

In January, our guest is Maren Cooke of Pittsburgh’s Sustainability Salon. A planetary scientist by training, today she works in environmental education and activism around climate, air quality, plastics, food, labor, and justice. 

Maren Cooke is a planetary scientist by training, but now works mainly on environmental education and activism around climate, air quality, plastics, food, labor, and justice.

She serves in leadership roles at the Group Against Smog & Pollution, 350 Pittsburgh, ReImagine Food Systems, Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic, Pittsburgh Green New Deal, and the Climate Action Plan Justice Coalition, and works closely with many other local organizations and government officials; she co-founded Putting Down Roots, Ohio Valley Environmental Resistance, the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, a school garden at a local K-8, and a nature education program in Frick Park. https://marenslist.blogspot.com/

Maren volunteers as an Urban Ecosteward, a Tree Tender, a Master Gardener, a Master Composter, and a Master Naturalist. Maren often creates banners and signage for local movements, and organizes and hosts Sustainability Salons, a monthly environmental education forum now 13 years running.


Speaking of ROOTS, the Parsec Short Story contest is open for submissions until March 31, 2025.
Get all the information here: https://parsec-sff.org/short-story-contest/

We do not accept stories written by AI. Any story found to be written by AI will be disqualified.

2024 March Monthly Meeting

This month our Confluence Topics meeting will be held at the Mt.Lebanon Public Library (16 Castle Shannon Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15228) in Meeting Room A (lower level).
The room opens at 12:30. The meeting starts at 1:00pm.
A Zoom option will be available for those that cannot make it in-person

Joining us in person will be Confluence 2024 Guest of Honor, Richard KadreyRichard is a novelist, freelance writer, and photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

At the March meeting, Parsec traditionally holds a brainstorming session for the Confluence Conference held July 26-28, 2024. We’ll be discussing various panel topics for consideration.
Richard will introduce us to his works, career, and writing, and do a reading from one of his books, perhaps the Sandman Slim series or The Dead Take the A Train. He will also participate in our Confluence panel topics discussion.

Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film.

“The Dead Take the A Train” is his latest release! Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Some of Kadrey’s other books include King Bullet, The Grand Dark, Butcher Bird, and The Dead Take the A Train (with Cassandra Khaw). He’s written for film and comics, including Heavy Metal, Lucifer, and Hellblazer. Kadrey also makes music with his band, A Demon in Fun City.

To Register for the Zoom meeting, visit: https://bit.ly/Parsec-Meeting


Coming in April . . .

 Our guest will be John Ventre of the Mutual UFO Network.